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SoSe 18: Radical Sixties. Global History in the Making

Christoph Kalter

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The fiftieth anniversary of the mythical year “1968” is a welcome opportunity to revisit the ‘long 1960s’ and to engage with the recent profusion of global history perspectives on a fascinating epoch of worldwide revolt. Between the mid-1950s and the mid-1970s, students, artists, intellectuals, ethnic minorities, workers, political activists, parties, and anticolonial liberation movements challenged long-standing systems of power in areas as diverse as international politics, work relations, higher education, race relations, sexuality and gender roles, or cultural production. This effusive desire to put into question—or to straightforwardly tear down—many of the boundaries that dominated a world marked by the Cold War, consumer capitalism, and decolonization was radical, indeed. In how far these actors unleashed a transformative power that was able to match their radical aspirations, is far more uncertain, however. The world changed, but hardly ever in the ways those who demanded change had anticipated it.

This seminar will address select aspects of the Radical Sixties by engaging with recent scholarly interpretations that either tackle the coherence of the epoch as a whole (or its lack thereof) or that speak to specific case studies. With regard to the latter, the seminar will geographically focus on Western Europe, North America, and Latin America (but may include also one or two sessions on either Africa or Asia, although this is not definitive yet). While attentive to the local dynamics of the case studies at hand, we will also explicitly reflect on the Radical Sixties as global history in the making, and this in three ways: Firstly, protest actors in different locations addressed similar problems in similar ways from Paris to Berkeley to Mexico City; secondly, they were acutely aware of parallels and transnational entanglements in what they perceived as their connected struggles; and thirdly, scholarship on the Radical Sixties has in the last decade taken a global history turn that allows to see these connections more clearly than ever before.

Finally, I admit that the time slot chosen for this class is unusual, but I invite you to consider how beautiful the world can look if you start your week in the crisp freshness of a nascent Berlin summer day. Also, the early hour will likely make for a smaller number of participants, which in turn will enhance the quality of our in-class discussions. So be radical: get up early. I am looking forward to working with you.

Participatory requirements: Regular and active participation, willingness to take on small tasks during the semester, seminar paper if required by the module.

Introductory literature: Chaplin Tamara/Mooney, Jadwiga E. Pieper, eds., The Global 1960s. Convention, contest and counterculture, London et. al. 2017; Klimke, Martin/Pekelder, Jacco/Scharloth, Joachim (eds.), Between Prague Spring and French May. Opposition and Revolt in Europe, 1960-1980, New York et al. 2011; Christiansen, Samantha/Scarlett, Zachary A. (eds.), The Third World in the Global 1960s, Oxford et al. 2013; close